My tea is now cozy
Progress at uni will probably be judged by my knitting output. This week, I’ve knit a few balls of a wrap (ideal for the iceboxes lecture theatres) and a tea cozy:
Now I can study with hot tea, rather than the insipid stuff I’ve been forced to drink with a naked tea pot. Funnies this week include having a fellow IBMW student use several words for vagina other than vagina and blush when prompted to use the proper word for it (gina, gine, snatch, box and a few others came up!), and rumour having it that we have to learn Pap smears on each other… I’m yet to get any confirmation of that and while I’m not troubled by it myself as I see the value in learning and would actually prefer to learn on someone who knew what they were in for, rather than women for whom Informed Consent would be a grey area, it’d be nice to have confirmation rather than rumour.
Hoooooo boy is there a LOT of reading in this course. My tute reading the other day - 3 hours solid. Very interesting to read across feminist theory, Aboriginal progress, men in the profession, horizontal violence and such but wow that’s a lot of reading!
I have assignments and placements already which is exciting!!! And I’ve organised some extra things to hopefully get some women to follow-through as soon as we’re able to. It would have been nice to have a meet-and-greet for the mid students during induction last week, and it would be nice to not feel like a lone duck in all of my labs and tutes and such as I’ve managed to organise a rather individual timetable for this semester, but with only 16 contact hours a week spread out over 5 FRICKING DAYS, I can’t really expect it all to be roses, right? Until week 3, I’m only at uni 3 days a week and I have a lot of time to do other things. Like hate the Clipsal car race, dye wool, sweat a lot and spend time with my sweetie.
Welcome to your new life as midwifery student. Please, please send me the pattern for your teacozy? American’s are yet to discover the buggers. My tea is always lukewarm… Sad really.
And yes, it’s **SO great** to learn pelvics and breast exams on each other. Trust me on that one. I can’t imagine learning any other way.
Comment by Louisa — March 3, 2007 @ 7:15 am
Sure! Email me an address and I’ll send you the whole magazine
.
I can’t imagine comfortably asking a female patient to let me learn on her and I’d rather do it on my classmates but it’s hard when some of them are 17 and have trouble with the whole “other women’s bits” concept. While I am all for university education and that being accessible to everyone, and special consideration given to students from lower socio-economic backgrounds, perhaps an interview would have helped weed out those really not comfortable with bodies.
Comment by Emma Someone — March 3, 2007 @ 7:21 am
Holy crap… no interview??
Your attrition rate should even it out.
Seriously bummed that we couldn’t ctach up when I was back in town. Adelaide feels so far away.
Comment by Louisa — March 5, 2007 @ 6:49 am
I’m hoping that some people will go external, or drop out (not hoping for them but for the stress on the course - the timetablers etc are finding it hard to book us all in!) and no - no interview.
I was seriously bummed to miss you too! Maybe when I’m in the US? And definitely next time you’re here!!
Comment by Emma — March 5, 2007 @ 9:12 am
Hi, I was just wondering if it was true that you have to practise pap smears etc on each other? I think it seems a bit odd to be honest, as a nurse we never used to practise putting catheters etc in each other. Good luck with the rest of your course. I have been considering Midwifery but I’m wondering if I would be able to practise the kind of midwifery I believe in or whether I would have to conform and turn into a clock watcher. As someone who is going through it what are your thoughts?
Comment by Emma — December 1, 2007 @ 8:51 pm